The present invention refers to a centralised system for the remote control of irrigation plants.
Centralised structures for the remote control of irrigation plants commanded by electronic control units are known, which by means of communication interfaces enable programming parameters of the electronic control units to be modified in remote mode.
The main manufacturers of irrigation plants produce both the hardware component and the software component to carry out this remote control of the irrigation plants.
There is a widespread need to use a personal computer as main work station by means of which all the various functions of a modern automatic irrigation plant can be controlled.
These personal computers, also placed in a network configuration, mainly use common operative systems and the respective computer instruments made available to the developers such as, the programming languages MS Visual C++, MS Visual Basic and MS SQL and the respective development instruments, such as MS Visual C++, MS Visual Basic, MS MSDN, HASP Edit for Win 32 and MS Access.
Nevertheless the software component that each manufacturer of irrigation plants places on the market is neither flexible, nor intuitive in its use as the management software associated to the hardware component does not have practical and prompt management characteristics.
In fact a modern automatic irrigation plant includes a plurality of communication interfaces each of which is connected to an electronic control unit of the plant itself.
The software and hardware management that the manufacturers offer is directed to at expert people in the art and therefore result to be of very little use by the average user.
A type of interface is known by the European patent application EP 901749 in the name of the same Applicant, in which a communication interface is illustrated associable to an electronic control unit of an automatic irrigation plant which is capable of interfacing to a generic electronic control unit so as to permit the remote control of the irrigation plant.
A type of control unit for an irrigation plant is in turn described in the European patent EP 805 381 in the name of the Applicant, in which a unit provides two distinct programming methods, by means of which it is possible to separate the most frequent use functions, relating for example to setting the base data for the operating of the control unit, from the most advanced functions, relating for example to the most sophisticated and personalised controls, as illustrated successively in FIG. 3.
In view of the state of the art, the object of the present invention is to provide a centralised control system capable of managing, programming and controlling an automatic irrigation plant in the simplest and most intuitive manner possible by a user.
According to the present invention, such object is reached thanks to a centralised control system comprising a personal computer; at least one communication interface having a first memory suitable for memorising a plurality of commands and a second memory suitable for memorising the events; at least one electronic control unit having a microprocessor and a third memory suitable for memorising the firmware necessary for the operating of said microprocessor; said control unit being suitable for controlling a plurality of solenoid valves and a main valve; said personal computer being connected to said at least one electronic control unit by means of said at least one control interface through communication means; said personal computer being provided with a management program resident in said personal computer; characterised in that said management program provides a plurality of commands that can be transmitted to said at least one connection interface, said transmittable commands comprising a first command containing instructions for loading in said first memory the contents of said third memory, a second command containing instructions for reading the contents of said first memory and sending them to said personal computer, a third command containing instructions for selecting specific portions of said first memory in which to write the data, a fourth command containing instructions for reading the data contained in said first memory, a fifth command containing instructions for reading the data contained in said second memory; a sixth command containing instructions for selecting between a first and second operative mode.
Thanks to the present invention simple and intuitive centralised control of an automatic irrigation plant can be achieved.